Movement Law Lab

What Propels the Global Authoritarian Surge and How We Can Fight Back “Any issue that progressive lawyers hope to advance–no matter how local–is bound up with the worldwide rise of authoritarianism. We need to better understand the threat so that we can play our part…

From Hungary to Argentina to the U.S., authoritarians share some common tactics: criminalize protest, weaken institutions, and scapegoat the vulnerable.Lawyers and movements must connect across borders to stop the drift.

convergencemag.com/articles/wha...

What You Need to Know if the National Guard Is Deployed to Your State by the Trump Regime — Movement Law Lab Learn your rights when the National Guard is deployed to your city. This guide explains the law, including the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, and provides critical information on…

Armed federal agents in Chicago. National Guard deployments in Portland and Memphis. These are not public safety measures, they are intimidation tactics.

Lawyers & communities, you need to know your rights. Here’s a resource on how you can prepare: www.movementlawlab.org/nationalguard

From @lawdorknews.bsky.social: Calling the order “yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket,“ Jackson wrote that the majority had failed by “privileging the bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families’ pleas for the stability our Government has promised them.“

No National Guard In Chicago After All? Trump Appears To Sour On Plan Despite Trump apparently changing his tune on sending National Guard troops to Chicago, federal immigration agents are in the city as part of Operation Midway Blitz.

3/ Moments like this show us both the danger of authoritarian overreach and the power of collective resistance.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/10/n... #Democracy #Chicago

No National Guard In Chicago After All? Trump Appears To Sour On Plan Despite Trump apparently changing his tune on sending National Guard troops to Chicago, federal immigration agents are in the city as part of Operation Midway Blitz.

2/ Federal agents are still flooding Chicago under “#OperationMidwayBlitz,” targeting immigrant communities and sowing fear. Movement lawyers and organizers are working together to resist this repression and defend community .

No National Guard In Chicago After All? Trump Appears To Sour On Plan Despite Trump apparently changing his tune on sending National Guard troops to Chicago, federal immigration agents are in the city as part of Operation Midway Blitz.

1/ Chicago organizers and officials have held the line against Trump’s plan to deploy the National Guard. Stopping an unconstitutional military incursion is a clear social movement win.

But the fight isn’t over.

Get Involved - Our Internship Program — Movement Law Lab Explore a rewarding internship journey in one of three dynamic program areas tailored to foster your professional growth. Our team at Movement Law Lab wants to work with eager students like you who ar...

Cool legal internship alert: our friends at the @movementlawlab.bsky.social are accepting applications for rising 3L summer interns, who will work alongside movement lawyers supporting grassroots movements fighting for dignity, justice, and liberation.

⚠️ Nesta quarta-feira (01), o @stf.jus.br pode julgar a Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade (ADI) 6553, que destinou cerca de 862 hectares para a construção da #Ferrogrão e da BR-163. Muita gente já destacou os intensos #ImpactosAmbientais e para os #PovosTradicionais.
Siga o 🪀

“However, recording law enforcement activities is protected by the First Amendment.” - @elizabethweill.bsky.social

DHS Says Filming, Posting Videos of ICE Agents Is “Doxxing,” Vows Prosecutions Recording on-duty law enforcement agents is protected by the First Amendment.

DHS now claims filming ICE raids is “violence.” Let’s be clear: recording law enforcement is a First Amendment right. Criminalizing documentation is straight out of the authoritarian playbook:Silence witnesses, erase evidence, punish dissent. truthout.org/articles/dhs...

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

4/ Groups like @stopcopcity.bsky.social have been doing critical work to defend movements and push back against this kind of repression. And the collapse of these charges is a reminder that movements for safety, dignity, and democracy will always outlast manufactured indictments.

3/ One of the defendants, Thomas Jurgens, was arrested while serving as a legal observer while wearing a bright yellow hat to make that role visible.

Prosecutors’ ‘Cop City’ case collapses as judge tosses Rico conspiracy charges Two-year attempt to prosecute opponents of police training center on criminal conspiracy charges ends in failure

2/ As @bradthomsonnop said, the ruling “exposes that the indictment was fundamentally flawed from the outset.” This is how authoritarian playbooks work: stretch the law to target protest, even when charges won’t hold.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Prosecutors’ ‘Cop City’ case collapses as judge tosses Rico conspiracy charges Two-year attempt to prosecute opponents of police training center on criminal conspiracy charges ends in failure

1/ A Fulton County judge has thrown out the sweeping RICO charges against #StopCopCity activists. The state’s rush to criminalize dissent collapsed under its own weight and violated rules to punish a movement. Lawyers and organizers, take note!

City of Portland will issue land use violation notice for ICE facility, triggering process to determine next steps at the site The City of Portland believes the federal government violated detention conditions of its land use approval 25 times in a 10-month period, according to federal records. Next steps could include fines…

When Portland found ICE had violated its land use limits 25 times, it wasn’t just a zoning issue. It was another chapter in a story of communities fighting back against repression.

What You Need to Know if the National Guard Is Deployed to Your State by the Trump Regime — Movement Law Lab Learn your rights when the National Guard is deployed to your city. This guide explains the law, including the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, and provides critical information on…

Check out this capacity-building resource for anyone working to resist the Trump Regime’s deployment of the National Guard in their cities and communities -> www.movementlawlab.org/nationalguard

3/ Each path raises big legal and constitutional questions. Communities and movements need to know the framework.

2/ There are 3 categories:
- A Gov can call up NG for emergencies.
- President + state governor can agree to deploy the NG for state or federal missions (Title 32).
- Pres can federalize the NG with or w/out a Gov's consent in limited cases like insurrection or invasion (Title 10/Insurrection Act).

What You Need to Know if the National Guard Is Deployed to Your State by the Trump Regime — Movement Law Lab Learn your rights when the National Guard is deployed to your city. This guide explains the law, including the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, and provides critical information on…

1/ When can the National Guard (NG) be deployed in your city? www.movementlawlab.org/nationalguard

What You Need to Know if the National Guard Is Deployed to Your State by the Trump Regime — Movement Law Lab Learn your rights when the National Guard is deployed to your city. This guide explains the law, including the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, and provides critical information on…

The unconstitutional and illegal deployment of the National Guard to enforce civilian law is a clear & present danger to our democracy. Check out our new explainer on what you need to know if the military gets deployed to your city. www.movementlawlab.org/nationalguard
#Memphis #NewOrleans #Chicago

Martial Law in the United States: Its Meaning, Its History, and Why the President Can’t Declare It The concept has never been well understood. What should be clear, however, is that the president lacks the authority to declare it.

Can a president declare martial law on their own? No. The Constitution & federal law do not give the president that power. Even when martial law has been declared in US, its use has been deeply contested. @brennancenter.org explains why the legal limits matter:

What You Need to Know if the National Guard Is Deployed to Your State by the Trump Regime — Movement Law Lab Learn your rights when the National Guard is deployed to your city. This guide explains the law, including the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, and provides critical information on…

The Trump regime has repeatedly threatened to deploy the National Guard. But what does that mean for your community? Know your rights. We break down the key legal questions on the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act. #NationalGuard #KYR #TrumpRegime

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Movement Law Lab is movement-born and internationalist. We know that when authoritarian power expands in one place, it spreads. Lawyers must resist authoritarianism at home & build solidarity with global struggles. www.reuters.com/world/europe...

3/ The quick progression to take a more isolationist approach to global collaboration and governance undermines the efforts to protect human rights and it isolates communities struggling to preserve their human rights and dignity.

2/ The UPR is a human rights report that all 193 UN member states submit every 5 years. The U.S. retreat from this gives cover to authoritarians worldwide to do the same. The Trump regime’s rejection of outside accountability sends a message to the world that no one can hold the U.S. to account.

1/ The U.S. has withdrawn from the UN’s Universal Periodic Review. The US is now on course to be the first country to not deliver a report to the UPR and will become the first nation to refuse to submit a report on their human rights record. What this means:

Has Trump succeeded in normalising American autocracy? People who have experienced the kind of authoritarianism the US used to condemn abroad highlight worrying signs

“When a democracy is designed with this capacity for authoritarianism you’re never more than one election away from its reappearance. That’s not an accident, that’s a design flaw.”

We must defend democracy & resist the Trump regime now.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

What You Need to Know if the National Guard Is Deployed to Your State by the Trump Regime — Movement Law Lab Learn your rights when the National Guard is deployed to your city. This guide explains the law, including the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, and provides critical information on recent...

📖 this resource from @movementlawlab.bsky.social on what you need to know if the national guard is deployed to your state by the Trump regime.

#knowyourrights

Trump’s Plan To Use the State To Crush Dissent Read more here.

“Trump’s attack on elections has only just begun…We must protect them at all costs. If we succeed, we will likely survive this dark period with democracy weakened but intact. If we fail, we may not have a democracy to come home to,” Marc Elias writes.